Hikaru Nakamura is back in contention for
the major prize at the NH Youth versus Experience tournament in
Amsterdam.After two consecutive wins and with three
rounds to play, Nakamura is only half a point from the lead, currently held by
veteran Boris Gelfand.

GMs Loek Van Wely and Hikaru Nakamura, Photo Cathy Rogers

More importantly toward earning the coveted
Melody Amber (blitz/rapid/blindfold) spot, Nakamura is tied for first place
amongst the five youngsters, equal with local star Anish Giri and half a point
ahead of Italy's Fabiano Caruana. In case of a tie between youngsters for the
Amber spot, a blitz tiebreaker will be held prior to the Closing Ceremony. Overall the youth team is dominating, three
points ahead of the oldsters who have only Gelfand above a 50% score. Nakamura's sixth round win against Ljubomir
Ljubojevic was a regulation fight-back with Black from a difficult opening
position, but his round seven game was extraordinary, both for the moves and
the back story.
Opening: Sicilian Najdorf1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6
Van Wely has been faithful to the Sicilian Najdorf
throughout his career despite many set-backs. For example in Wijk aan Zee this
year he lost three games with the Najdorf; according to his second of the time
Vladimir Chuchelov, all three games featured van Wely playing a line they had
analyzed and rejected as bad for Black!6.Bg5 Nbd7!?
A surprise from van Wely, who almost invariably plays 6...e6
here. Computer analysis has greatly enhanced White's prospects in many of the
main lines so it is not surprising that Najdorf players are starting to look in
other directions.7.f4
On an adjacent board, Giri was facing the same line against
Gelfand and preferred the more common 7.Bc4 putting the top seed under
considerable pressure.7...Qb6 8.Qd2 Qxb2 9.Rb1 Qa3 10.Bxf6
"I have to play this," said Nakamura, "otherwise I have a
bad version of a normal Poisoned Pawn variation." (The Poisoned Pawn variation,
favoured at various times by World Champions from Fischer to Kasparov to
Anand,runs 6...e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Qd2 Qxb2,
etc.) 10...Nxf6 11.e5 dxe5 12.fxe5 12....Nd7??!
Shortly before the NH tournament began, van Wely had written
an article for New in Chess on the World Open. In it he had analysed a game by
the winner, Laznicka, against Brian Smith. That game had continued 12...Ng4!
13.Nd5 Qc5 14.Nb3 Qc6 15.Na5 Qd7 16.Nc4!? and White won the exchange via Nb6
but ultimately lost the game.
"I had analysed all this, of course," said Nakamura. "12...Ng4
is still pretty dangerous for Black. After 13.Nd5 Qc5 14.Nb3 Qc6, I wasn't sure
whether I would play 15.Na5 or 15.Qa5."13.Nd5! Qc5 14.Nb3! Qc6 15.Na5 Qc5
"I had analyzed the game Smith-Laznicka for New in Chess,"
explained van Wely, "and I remembered that White had played Na5-c4-b6.So I started to think - "How is this
possible when Black has a knight on d7 covering b6?" But I still didn't remember
that the Black knight was on g4, not d7."16.Nxb7!
"Only after he took on b7 did it start to ring a bell - but by
then it was a bit late," van Wely confessed.If the knight was on g4, Black could have played Qd7 in response to Na5, defending the b-pawn.
16...Qc6
16...Bxb7 17.Rxb7 Rc8 18.Bxa6 Qc6 19.Qa5! is also hopeless
for Black.17.Rb6!! 1-0

A pretty finish; it's mate after 17...Nxb6 18.Nf6+! exf6
19.Qd8.

Losing a game in 17 moves is bad enough, but worse was to
come for van Wely when the editor of New in Chess, Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam,
showed van Wely a copy of his article in the as yet unpublished issue of New in
Chess.

In it van Wely states "Not 12...Nd7 because of 13.Nd5! Qc5
14.Nb3! Qc6 15.Na5 Qc5 16.Nxb7 and Black loses." Never would a player have
received less satisfaction from having their analysis proved correct.

After the game, which lasted less than one and a half hours,
both players appeared somewhat shell-shocked. They stood outside the press room
discussing how such an error could be possible and whether the line was
playable at all.

"My memory started to go when I was 25," admitted van Wely, perhaps
giving Nakamura pause to think that he might only have a few more years left to get to the top.